Forbidden Truths
by Ouchimoo
Summary: At a time before Soul Reaver 1, Kain learns of the Chronochamber and peers into the secrets that lie within.


Perhaps it was curiosity, or rather, boredom that drew me to this place. Aside from the petty battles the cattle waged upon us, there wasn't much interest to be had in Nosgoth. If one was so inclined, they could simply sit back and watch as the world declined. I generally spent my time this way. Wallowing in my days at the highest peaks at my mountain retreat. This detour was perhaps a much needed distraction from the monotony that had lingered on for centuries.

The statue of Mobius before me stood impeccably intact. One could not help but to sneer if one was used the way as I had been. Even in death the dottling soothsayer and conniving trickster mocked me. It nearly took all my willpower not to defile the edifice right here and now. However, I could appreciate how long these grounds stood unscathed, as if unfettered by the sands of time. Mobius the Time Streamer, standing here as if time had stopped still. Was it irony? Or perhaps something more. With that, I wonder, what remains intact of these chambers? What insight I might gain?

Perhaps it was more than I had bargained for.

As I walked through the dark halls a glint of reflection caught my eye. At first, I presumed it was a mirror. Imagine my surprise when I turned to gaze at it. I saw myself, but not in my current state. It was when I was still but a fledgling. Startled I drew a sharp breath. While the Kain staring back at me was still mostly human, it mimicked my movements just as if I was truly staring in a mirror. I stepped back with an uneasy caution.

"Is this your trick, Mobius?!" My words snapped with a growl that would instill fear into the most fearless humans. I had hoped that if any presence lingered nearby, I would hear their jostle. Not even the grace of an echo replied. "I shall have you know when I find you, you're next death will not be done with such haste!"

Again silence. It quickly became apparent that there was nothing in this chamber but me. The air was stale and decrepit. Nothing flowed through here for decades. I could not smell warm blood, nor cold for that matter. Not even a smattering of crows existed here. Infuriating really.  
Then what were these tricks? A waste of my time? I could easily leave, leaving this place in shambles, burnt to the ground and finally let this wretched place wither to the sands of time. But as I began to leave, something peculiar happened. A creature I had not considered finally responded. At my back, my most valuable sword trembled for my attention.

When I drew the sword I regarded the aberrantly wild glowing eyes. Aside from when it fed I only ever once felt the sentience of the Reaver. When it first made its true willpower known to me that very fateful day. I turned my attention back to the mirror. This time noting the void emptiness. Gazing deeper I could see stars glittering in the vastness of space. They moved unlike any constellation I've ever seen.

I reached out to the scantilation just to be sure. As I did I watched the stars ebb and flow around my fingers' touch. Beyond them a new image emerged. It was my vestige once again. However, this time I could see years of experience and an evolution to my appearance compared to the last image. The bony cusps that moderately decorated the ridges of my crown were only just now emerging. My fingers had intertwined, only beginning to show the cloven clawed appendages that served me now. And my skin was no longer the white of the moon, but a hint of yellow that slightly seeped out to dye my skin.

Remarkable. The memory that had just crossed my mind moments ago was now the image appearing before me now. The reaver lit up again, nudging me towards the image. It wanted to show me something. And how could I resist? I stepped forward, slipping through the void, at once the smell of death washed over me. Everburning torches cast warm inconsistent hues across the dark room. I knew where I was. An unforgettable memory, and yet it felt as if this was the very first time ever stepping foot into this antiquated martyrs' crypt. I knew full well that this arrival wasn't by complete error. The reaver, now blazing in my hand, led the way. A powerful blade, which by Mobius's trickery set in machinations to change the Nemesis into William the Just by my hands. A play that allowed him to lead a crusade against all vampires. Now here, in this crypt, it was at this time that I first sensed the Wraith's full will within the blade. When it propelled me to leach my soul from my body and pierce it into the wilted corpse. All at the will of the weapon I held in my hand. There was six in all. By the time I cast my grace into the last body, I was drained and weakened. I dropped to a knee. My hand gripping tightly to the hilt to the sword. I glared at it. I rightly felt it was time to find a way to destroy it. I had not known the purpose behind what had happened but it was not my willpower. I was not one to let a trifle thing like that go unpunished. Then something remarkable happened. Something that quickly changed my mind about the Reaver. I heard the thud of a body land behind me. And when I turned, I saw decrepit withered bones melt into a restored human being. No. Not human. A vampire. A childe. I rose to my feet in awe. I had always presumed it was impossible for me to raise my own kind. Certainly the standard methods were of no use to me. And yet, here before me, my childe took his first breath.

"Wha? Where am I? Who~ am I?" The fledgling's voice was weak, trembling. As was he.

Feinting any weakness of my own, I approached and placed my hand on his shoulder. I glanced at the name that was vaunted above his tomb. "Your name is Raziel. I am your Master, Kain. I have restored you and, in kind, you will serve me well." The words purred from my throat. I had awaited this moment for a long time. The Reaver granted me my gift.

As I blinked, I realized I had been staring at a wall. How very peculiar indeed. So this was the mechanization of Mobius's deceit. Far more than just a simple hourglass that I presumed before. I wondered, what else could I learn from these halls? And if the past could be seen, then what of the future? I was now determined to find out.

Across the hall I spied another portal. I could sense I was somewhere in the future just as I had willed it. I deduced this from my children. They were impatiently waiting, just as I sensed that I had been. Their features were telling. Turel and Dumah seemed to have gained a certain mass about them. And their features warped just ever so slightly. Rahab's change was more startling as his skin now glistened with an odd greenish hue. And Melchiah revealed the most devious change of them all. His body hardly containing the innards of his form. His skin sloughed from his body, needle and thread keeping them from dripping from his face. Then, me. Looking down at my body, I could see the deep red cloven hands were beyond any recognition of ever having fingers. The yellow tint of my skin wasn't slight anymore. It was putrid and the dark black veins ran deep. Nestled in one of my hands, was my ever trusted blade, the Soul Reaver. Footsteps alerted me to look up. Approaching I saw Raziel. His features were pristine as he stepped into the pale light. He bowed. Despite his submissive act, he commanded an air of superiority and defiance. I did not need to wait long to see why he commanded an audience. He lifted a graceful wing into the air. Then another. With both he flourished them and I was instantly filled with a powerful surge of loathing and jealousy at his new gift. Overwhelming, honestly, as I approached to admire their beauty. Raziel wasn't without caution, allowing me to look but snarled if my wandering touch threatened to become too close. And in a moment, I stripped that arrogance from his body. His body collapsed from the shock and in my hands held the bony vestiges of his once wings….. I glowered. The Lieutenants looked on in shock. Some even with a new excitement not seen in eons.

"Take him to the Lake!" I heard myself command.

Without haste, I was staring down into the hellfire waters that raged below. Turel and Dumah dragged the weakly protesting Raziel to my feet. Lust of death dominated my fervor. I reached down and using all my crushing strength I twisted the nap of his neck, his body twisted at my grasp and I relished my sense of domination. In a fell swoop I launched him into the air.

"Let's see you use your wings now" I heard myself snarl over his screams. I felt a deep sense of satisfaction as his body plunged into the waters below. Steam bellowed off his body as he thrashed in the waters acidic touch. And I ate up every last bittersweet moment of his torment.

When the vision passed I discovered I did not share the same gleeful emotions as my future twin. Disgusted perhaps? But I barely had time to distinguish as the Reaver was white hot with rage in my grasp. Fueled with emotions so powerful I could sense it's rage against me. It twisted in my grasp, trying to ram the blade through my chest. I caught the edge with my free hand and fought while the edge sliced into the meat of my palm. Considering it's willpower against me before, I took it's rage with a great deal of concern.

I regarded it's furosity for a moment.

"What is it you are trying to show me?" I asked calmly trying to appease the weapon. It continued to fight, but my voice of reason eventually pierced through it's rage. After a moment, it seemed to remember what it was trying to tell me. I could feel the blade lift to point to a new mirror. The mirror reflected a new premonition. I saw myself in the middle of an intense battle with a creature I have yet to lay eyes on. Ghoulish in nature but with such fury and hatred as I saw it lunging at me. I gazed just enough to get a sense without fully immersing myself. My future self addressed the wraith by name.

"I killed you once Raziel! Do not think I can't do it again!"

Fateful words. I watched as this Kain lunged up and with all his prowess, struck the blade across Raziel's putrid form. And to my surprise, the blade shattered! Once again the world trembled at the shift of a paradox. My mind reeled.

My dopple looked dumbly at the empty husk of the hilt in his grasp. And while observing I felt the Reaver purr in satisfaction in my own hand. My focus on this moment intensified.

From the ethereal plain Ariel crackle forth with a lusting, mocking laugh. She formed with a satisfactory sneer of vengeance on her half destroyed face. Then from thin air, the wraith, Raziel once again emerged. This time with the sentient blade now clinging to his grasp.

"It would appear as if the tables have turned, Kain!"

I stepped back in surprise as I broke from the memory. None too soon either, as I was left with a lingering sensation of what it would be like to have the Reaver plunged into my own chest.

"Explain yourself!" I hissed at the sword in my hand. I may look like a damn fool for doing such a thing, but I did not care. The Reaver's eyes glowed in my hand, but did nothing. "So all of this, is this your doing?" No response. "Is this just to mock me?!" Still nothing. The Reaver could have been a mundane sword at this point. With a growl I headed towards my exit. The Reaver shuttered at my hand. I halted if only to glare at it. Again it was quiet.

Clearly whatever it was trying to tell me, I would have to find out on my own. I had no inclination of what to expect from the next vision. It was soon apparent at what that vision was.

The choice.

Irritation and rage grit my teeth. No doubt this was all purely to insult me. Remind me of the choice I made wrong so many years ago. And so, there I stood surrounded by all the restored pillars with my own rotted pillar before me. Ariel the phantom mocked me, knowing full well how I had been used as a pawn. Despising myself, the fledgling vampire, and everyone who had used me. I felt no attachment to my vampiric curse and a bitter hatred for those who thought to deceive me. Yet, it was better to be dead than undead.

"What?"

Amongst my weapons, I chose the most powerful. The one to quicken my own demise. What sword it was, was called the Soul Reaver. Then with all my muster I plunged it into the black heart of my chest. The irony and cruel joke. To know that in the end, they bested me after all. That I, the purifier of the Circle, would have one last head to collect. My own. Odd really. One would not think you could feel any colder than the embrace of being a vampire. Yet as the beats of my undead heart slowed, I felt- cold. In the end, at least before I lose consciousness, I could see the pillar glow with virgin marble. Ariel arched back and embraced the dissolve of her form and my eyes drifted off to a permanent death. Only to be interrupted by Ariel's blood curdling shriek. With what I could muster, my eyes opened to see the pillar of balance shatter before me. Then the rest. All splitting apart like shattered glass in an earthquake. I stumbled backwards, just as the center of the circle fell beneath, opening a portal to what looked like hell. Through my blackened vision an overwhelming outcropping of red light blazed through. A being hovered before my body as my last moments could only catch his words.

"You have done well, pawn of pawns."

A startle tore a sharp cry from my body as I lunged back, once again finding myself in the vacant halls. My mind reeled, racing as I tried to fathom the pieces of history and prediction tossed at me. Why that vision? It was clearly not the path I took so why show me this delusion. In confusion, I looked at the Soul Reaver for guidance. It pulsed quietly in my hands.

Of course. In my last premonition I never killed William the Just. I can't explain how I escaped the Nemesis. Or perhaps there never was a Nemesis. What I do know is that my past, the history I lived, the Reaver constructed a new reality. That it was a key to unlock some greater destiny. My mind reeled with the thought. As I left the chamber, I once again bestowed the edifice of Mobius's form. What horrid game had been set in motion long after his death? I would tell tales of such treachery. To what I discovered this day however, I kept to myself. To reflect and to pander for if it wasn't perhaps just another trap. And for many years I kept these posturings to the fore thought of my mind. Until eventually, time passed and they merely became a distant memory.

Once again I found myself drearily waiting for the council to converge. It was my first lieutenant who requested it. I was not to refuse. Yet as I sat there I grew impatient. The other lieutenants stood by idly restless as well.

Raziel was, unexpectedly but fashionably, late. I imagine the peculiarities of the situation wasn't all that overall unusual. Finally, My first born appeared. I nodded at his presence. Then as he stepped forward a sense of something amiss. As I slowly gauged as to what, it became shockingly familiar. He bowed. With great pride lofted a graceful wing in the air. Then another. Taken aback, I slipped the silent Reaver from my hand. I approached carefully and circled. The pristine beauty was mere inches away from my touch. Raziel snarled if my hand strayed too close.

It had to be done.

The room startled as Raziel shrieked and collapsed. The bones now in my hands. I tossed them aside and retrieved my sentient blade. Eyes glowed but not with any kind of lust I could discern. Merely they seemed to be observing. As I reached for the hilt my brood tensed with excitement.

"Bring him to the lake." I spoke dryly. And even though I had just lifted a hand to one of my own, his brothers were still so eager to do my bidding.

I peered into the raging waters below as Turel and Dumah dragged Raziel's limp body to the edge. I turned and stepped away from the edifice. Unlike the phantom of another memory, I was not so eager to toss my First Lieutenant to his death. Yet, the order needed to be done.  
"Cast him in!" This time, I could not bring myself to watch.

As I walked back to the Sanctuary of Clans, a new resolution gnawed at me. I had an idea of what was to come. I knew what needed to be done.

It was time to break the loop.


End file.
